Time Challenge "One Tiny Speck"

Late again, apologies, but yee should be used to me by now.

I was pondering this one for several weeks playing with ideas while doing all the other stuff that occupies my time.

I feel really small and humble when I think of the age of this large rock we call home.

And I'm beginning to feel time slipping away so fast.

I'm still waiting to grow up and become one of those adults and I was most upset last week to find out I was still at college when one of my students was born!!

I thought I cann't be that old, then did the math, and realised yes you are.

So here it is, been playing in Photoshop again.

Used the last piece of the A3 transfer paper I found and transfered onto white cotton.

Made my sandwich and started quilting.

Here's the original image:

The quilting didn't go very well as the transfer paper started disintregrating. I put it onto fine cotton this time, bad mistake !!

Here's a close up you can just about see some of the background layers peeping through.

Final closeup and time to move on to the next challenge.

Architecture Challenge Piece

A week or two later than promised but its done. When the piece was printed I was amazed by how suitable this piece would be for last challenge, just cannot get the Burren images out of my head!

Ancient Arch

I love ancient ruins, the skill involved, dreaming of what the structures were like in their heyday, oh the romance of it all !
Played with images in photoshop for a few days, layering, cutting and stretching till I came up with image below which I printed onto A3 transfer paper which is about ten years old (one of the problems of hoarding), wasn't sure if it would work.

Next was what fabric should I use? While looking through my white collection I came across this :

Some textured cotton, so transferred image on it:

As the transfer paper was so old I wasn't sure what would happen, a few pieces lifted but was very happy with transfer as the texture of the fabric came through as a hoped:

Once the quilt sandwich was assembled using polyester wadding, I started machine quilting with some variegated thread and then bound the piece with black to finish.

Close up one

Close up 2



Better late than Never

I'm only about six months late!

Sorry everyone

So here it is my

Through the Window piece

" Window to my heart"

This piece was inspired by pictures I took in the Burren in Co. Clare with Claire as our tour guide as  research for a larger group piece.
For the last couple of years I've been working on an Elemental theme incorporating the seasons as related to life cycles. It's me working out who and where I am
 ( end of summer, moving into autumn!)
I feel a strong bond to ancient rural sites and the power they hold.
As a child I grew up about half an hours drive from Newgrange, one of the most well known ancient sites and had two ruins of castles to play in, just several fields from home.
Here I've tried to blend me into the ancient stone looking through one window into the past.

 I love to play with all types of photo transfer and have used several of them here. I've used bits of images transferred using transfer paper, image maker and bubble jet set. They all react differently with the fabric and create interesting effects when layered.

Detail showing effect achieved by use of walnut ink wash

This image was taken from an ancient grave stone

and this is the back of the piece which I quiet like.

I burnt the edges so that I wouldn't feel obliged to bind them!

I wanted to keep a raw feeling to the piece.



Shadowlights by Paula Rafferty

So here it is my first Internet challenge called

Shadow lights

It's a whole cloth digital print 48cm by 61cm

Machine quilted and coloured with watercolour pencils

This is a close up image which shows the effect achieved by playing with an image in Photoshop.

I started this piece by little brain storming sessions in my head while doing other things!

Which them got transferred onto paper; phrases such as light n dark, good n evil, duality of self kept recurring.

I have also been making some self portraits and played around with some ideas combining these.

I wasn't happy, it just wasn't happening

and then I remembered an images of the earth from the air that I had played with in photoshop and printed on cotton on my Dad's large format printer.

It was just what I wanted, it fitted the theme perfectly with just a little extra shadow! 

I get lost in the patterns and swirls, every time I look at it I see different mythical and demonic faces and images.

I had to stop myself quilting any more. I feel the piece is more interesting with little stitch.

The eye is allowed to wonder round more freely to discover new imaged, like watching clouds!

 

Red watercolour pencil was used to highlight colour already there.

So that's it from me, can't wait to see all the other pieces and thanks Claire for reminding me about the deadline.